The
Steam Users Forums (thanks
Shacknews) announces
that Valve called shenanigans on approximately 20,000
Steam user accounts yesterday, and
has disabled access to them. Word is: "The method used was extremely easy for
Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts
disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2." The post goes on to
describe the circumstances under which Steam accounts will be revoked, as well
as avenues to follow should you feel your account was banned erroneously. They
also go on to debunk what has become the popular myth that they released a bug
to the warez circuit to entrap pirates:

Valve did not put out any kind of
fake key or fake warez or hack instructions to trap people. The hack came from
the "community" as do they all.

You know something though:The fact that Valve can create an internet delivery system that requires verification each time you play the game that they built, the game that you bought and paid for, the game that we all would love to pir8, is a sign of just how quality their game must be.

Face it, everybody wants it, in some stretch or another.People who hate Steam want to conquer it, they can't, so they beak about it.I bought the game, thusly I have naught to beak for.However, this is not to say that I am, not worried about this whole idea of internet verifications and delivery systems.

Companies are keen on this plot to modularize all software, such that if a user wants a piece, they simply select what they need and it's downloaded to their machine, under their user name and password.

Not a bad set up, for the companies. And certainly it is infinitely convenient for a consumer with a credit card.However, I don't have a credit card, and I don't plan on getting one, if I can help it.

Where is the problem? Well there are problems with this, inherent to it's functionality as a middle man. Firstly, it shortens the chain by which software is doled out to the consumer. That means that less people see see money along the way. Good for the consumer, bad for any current middle men (somewhere a Vivendi official is crying).

Secondly, internet delivery means that unless you have the internet, you're in the cold. This creates more market for internet and we all know about the possibility of taxation upon internet connections. Some people will find a way to tax anything.

Third, internet delivery requires a credit card, a pay pal account, or some other form of cred based payment. For an individual like me, that's not an option.

Fourth, internet delivery does not require but will find inherent, the delivery software acts as overlord. In other words, everything is under Steam.I fuck around with Hammer (once Worldcraft) quite a bit, and it's a severe pain in the ass having to navigate through fourteen layers of folder bullshit just to get at my HL2 folder. If this isn't enough, productivity in this regard can be a real bitch.

I could go on and on, and yes these are valid concerns, valid issues.However, at the end of the day, Steam works. Unfortunately, Steam work. I hate to admit it, because it is a point of control that I do not like relinquishing. I have been forced to allow a company to let software reside on my machine, such that it guards another piece of software.I don't like this. My computer, my machine. If I buy software for it, I do not want a guardsman to come with it and troll my ports to keep me from playing it. Especially since my internet is not completely dependable.